That’s a pain! I love reading ebooks on my ipad though. Heck, I’ve been converting my work in progress into an epub and loading it on my pad so I can read through it.
You’d think there would be an app to let you read ibooks on your macbook.
In case anyone thinks Amazon is the “free market force” here, a couple links from the last two years:
http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/amazon-pulls-5000-kindle-e-books-in-contract-pricing-dispute/
http://www.sfwa.org/2010/02/dispatches-from-the-ebook-wars-macmillan-vs-amazon/ - this site is really, really good and I’ve always found their analysis of the publishing industry insightful.
I wish you well in your writing endeavour and appreciate your inside perspective. As a consumer, I reject higher prices for the ebook version over the paperback version. I have encountered this recently and see no reason to justify it.